Wifi on the Fly

Sitting in Old Port Cove playing with wifi. (and still learning)

The laptop built-in wifi is unable to connect with any signal, but using the little Engenius EUB-362 EXT, and a tiny $15 omni antenna, a wifi scan shows about 15 access points, about half of them unencrypted. There is one commercial operation--the strongest signal. But they want $15 a day to use their wifi. I can connect pretty easily with 2 of the next strongest signals that are unencrypted, for free. Access is pretty steady, though occasionally I lose the link as we swing (not sure why, exactly...maybe
the mast gets in the way?) Since I'm not sure where the access point is, it's hard to speculate.

While we were motoring down the waterway yesterday, I spent an hour playing with the EUB-362, and was able to actually pick up signals on the fly as we went by more populated areas. I had to be pretty quick, though. The signals faded pretty quickly as we went by, and it takes about 30 seconds to connect. And I'm collecting my AOL email via Outlook and it's kind of a pig. I'd have trouble getting a completed send/receive on email (checking about 4 different mailboxes these days!). Dave even offered
to slow down the next time I got a good signal. What a good guy.

I was fooling with the settings on our 'Big Gun' wifi setup (the EOC-3220) night before last and managed to change a setting on the configuration, that shut down my access to it. This morning I figured out how to do a factory reset on it (thanks to notes from a friend who had done the same thing). But it doesn't seem to be necessary to use that much power in here and I can use the little guy without needing to turn the inverter on.

I highly recommend the EUB-362 for a simple solution for mobile people looking for a little more boost to their signal. See the Electronics page on the website for links on where you can get one.

Old Port Cove, North Palm Beach

We are sitting anchored in Old Port Cove, a nice lagoon lined by ritzy houses and condos at the north end of Lake Worth, in North Palm Beach.

We decided to take a lay day to let Memorial Day go by and wait to travel the West Palm to Lauderdale run when most of the crazies are back at work.

Rumour has it that this yacht belongs to Jack Nicklaus. And left, a photo of Dave fixing the windlass control cable.

Yesterday we did 11 bridges, 7 of them drawbridges, and 4 fixed bridges. The fixed bridges are easy for most people, but we have such a tall mast that we have to make sure no big wakes are going by when we go thru, and then inch up and go thru slowly. It's impossible to tell from deck level whether you're going to clear. (and I don't trust the posted height boards). Most of the bridges we went thru yesterday were over 65'. (in Melbourne they are 63-64', which is close enough to make our VHF
antenna hit). The draw bridges were not too bad except when we got near Palm Beach, they were all on a schedule, and we had to keep pushing to make the next opening.

We went hard aground once... 6 feet inside the channel marker in Jupiter Inlet. I thought we were never going to get off... the current was wicked and pushing us on, as was the wind. But Dave just assessed the situation and decided to try blasting off first. We were successful in inching off without any assistance.

We also had to shut down the engine once. One of the injector connectors was leaking fuel. Dave insisted we had to shut down RIGHT NOW and fix it. We were in a narrow part of the waterway--no anchoring room. So we inched over to the side, threw our anchor over in 5', and sort of lay ahull along the bank while Dave made the repair. He was done in 10 minutes and we were only a little aground, so it wasn't hard to get moving again.

The wind forecast is still indicating stiff Easterlies for the next few days. We'd hoped to be able to go outside and do some sailing ... at Ft. Pierce ... then at West Palm. But we aren't really ready for 6-8' seas on the beam (too much stuff unstowed). Now our latest plan is to motor down to Ft. Lauderdale on the inside tomorrow and then see what it looks like. We have to go outside around Miami anyway, so if it is still blowing like stink on Wed, we'll pop back in at Miami and go down Biscayne Bay to Pumpkin Key. There we can pop out at Angelfish Creek and be behind the reef and heading SW away from the wind. So we estimate ETA Marathon about Thursday at the earliest.

Down the ICW on Memorial Weekend

What were we thinking??

It's bad enough going down the Waterway on a normal weekend, but it seems that Memorial weekend has brought out all of boating's best and brightest. It warmed my heart to see the Marine Patrol handing out a ticket to a power boat that was blatantly ignoring the 'no wake' signs.

Someone in America is making some money, for all these powerboats to be cruising up and down the waterway at 'max fuel burn' speed.

Well, we had a nice evening on the hook at Marker 21. The last time we'll be doing THAT for awhile (snif). Sorry we missed TGIF at MYC, but we just needed to get going.

Tonight's stop is a wide spot in the ICW about 10 miles south of Ft. Pierce then on to West Palm tomorrow.

The boat's working pretty well. The autopilot and refrigeration are working well. The anchor windlass isn't... an electrical problem in the remote control. It still works manually. Dave spent an hour today troubleshooting and repaired one break in the wire. Still didn't fix it. So we'll use the old-fashioned manual windlass and repair it properly when we get to Marathon.

Gone!

As of 3pm, we are outta here!
Marker 21 or Sebastian tonight.

Getting Ready to Pull Away from the Dock

We have a few more hours of preps (mainly just moving the last of our bits out of the condo), but should be underway by about noon.

I forgot to put milk on the 'Last Publix Run' list when Dave took the rental car back, so I have to hoof it out to the 7-11 for a half gallon of milk before we leave. Yep, we're really cruising!

I think we'll anchor at Sebastian tonight, and perhaps even stay there tomorrow and finish getting organized. There's no big hurry because we can't (easily) go south of West Palm til the wind quits howling... about Mon or Tue.

We'll try to send in a position update via Winlink about every 8 hours or so.
http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/find.cgi?call=KN4TH

Leaving Tomorrow! (Friday)

Yes, we really are going to do it... soon.

The freezer is behaving nicely and full of food.

The Monitor wind vane is mounted

Dave's car is parked in Clermont at his friend Jim's house.

More Photos

The home phone is turned off, and newspaper delivery canceled

The water level has dropped about 6 inches

Looks like we're going to pull out of here tomorrow morning some time!

We could have made it out of here today, but it's blowing like stink, so we're stalling a little and watching the forecast. We can spend a day or two inside the waterway before the high winds will impede us, so our plan is to head south to about West Palm and wait for winds in the 10-15 kt range, to make an outside hop down to the Keys. Hopefully that will be Mon or Tue.

The Refer is ON!!!

Well, as usual, it took a *little* longer than the half a day that Dave estimated. But also as usual, he did a primo job, so everything went in better than it came out, and is all shiny and neat.

As of 5 minutes ago, with 5 minutes of running time, the compressor was running fine and the plates were cooling.

Here are some photos of the freezer going back together.

This is the removable plywood/epoxy box with the plates inside sitting on a heavily insulated box. The upper box slides down inside the blue insulation. This is so the system can be easily removed to be taken off and worked on.

To the right you can see the plywood box now down inside the insulated box. On the lower right is the hole that the pipes go thru to connect up to the compressor system.

Below, located on a shelf above the engine, in the engine room, is the compressor setup. In the foreground, the shiny silver thing is the evacuation pump (attached temporarily to pull a vacuum on the system). The compressor is behind the evacuation pump. The gauges provide readings on tempurature and vacuum status.

This was the last major project we had to complete before we could leave. Now we just have to finish up about 20 minor ones! (ie time to get off this stupid computer and keep working on my list!)

Long-range plans update

Our original schedule (when we were leaving 1 April) had an ambitious schedule to backtrack and enjoy some of the Western Caribbean before making the Panama Canal transit in the fall. Then enjoying the Pacific coasts of Costa Rica and Ecuador, doing some inland South American travel and launching across the Pacific in the April 2008 timeframe.

The schedule has now slipped about 2 months, and we've finally admitted we can no longer 'suck it up' without making some hard decisions. It's not possible to just push the entire schedule as is back by 2 months, because there's a 'Pacific crossing window' we have to make(April/May). So the choice is either to skip some of the Western Caribbean and get back on schedule, or lolly-gag a little and push the 'cross the Pacific' date out another year.

I think we've decided that we're tired of hurrying, really do want to spend some time diving Mexico, Belize, and Honduras, and don't mind letting the whole schedule slip some. Haven't updated the Cruising Plans page yet, but will do that soon.

STILL HERE!

Well, we’re not ready to leave today. Dave told a friend in an email last night ‘maybe Tuesday’, and we’ve started having anything we order sent to the Keys instead of here. We have made a lot of progress in the last week.

The first thing we did was cut Dave's '3 Major Projects To Complete' down to 2 by putting off the head bolt issue til we get to the Keys. Dave's friend Jim (another CSYer) has volunteered to help him pull the head and re-tap the one bolt that has the garbled threads.

I got all the food stowed yesterday (except the cold stuff, which is still in the house freezer). Provisioning is all done except for the last trip for fresh veggies and eggs. We have just one more prescription to pick up at the pharmacy today, and the medical stuff is done (I even got the sutures I’ve been whining about from friend, Donna from ECSA, who's a nurse. Plus she gave us some 'Dermabond' so we don't have to SuperGlue our cuts.)

Dave's first project, to make sure he has all the pieces parts for assembling a new watermaker when we get to the Rio Dulce, is nearly complete. One more stop for a couple of small items at Advanced Water Systems will finish this task.

Dave got the 2nd cold plate installed in the fridge in yesterday, and he was smilingas he finished up. Today’s job is to swap out the freezer plate (with a bigger one). He thinks this will be the easier of the two jobs. (but we probably won’t know until we turn the whole system on). Then we have to pump the refer system down and check for leaks and let it stabilize out. Then we can load it with all the food I bought. And then leave!

While we’re waiting for the freezer to freeze, we have to mount the wind vane and get the 15HP motor aboard. And I have to collect up all my electronic bits and pieces laying all over the floor and stow them.

I have a date with the insurance man this morning (insurance for my 2 rental properties, which have been non-renewed by USAA).

No more going away parties allowed! I think they’re bad luck at this point.

One final thing we're worrying about is the water level in the Indian River. Our mast height is 64', meaning we just barely fit under the bridges when the water is 'normal'. A few weeks ago the water level was low and we cleared easily. The last 2 weeks of wind has pushed the water level up about 18" higher than it was... it is within 1 inch of our 'no clearance' level, and we are holding our breaths and hoping it will go down soon!! (but it hasn't much in the last few days).

FYI anyone who knows Tom and Jean on our sistership Jean Marie... they have been getting ready for their circumnavigation (via the '5 Great Capes') and Tom and Dave have collaborated and commiserated on many projects.. (and Jean has given me lots of sympathy and advice)... they pulled out of the Dragon anchorage 2 days ago and are up in the Cocoa area ‘waiting for weather’. Tom wants something mild and ‘not North’ for the first day—to get across the Gulfstream. Their path is east and south, with a first landfall in Guadeloupe (and ultimately Trinidad for a haulout). Yesterday would have been a good one, but he had ‘one more project to do’. (sound familiar?)

Last day in our old house in the Keys with the family still here...

We've spent the weekend helping Dad get packed up and sorting family treasures. We've had some fun, had some disagreements, and shed some tears over a few items. But it's nearly done now. Dad and my sister and brothers and the truck pull out this afternoon. Dave and I and Nicki will stay over until tomorrow so we can noodle around Marathon a little without feeling like we're shirking our family responsibilities.

Then we're back to Satellite Beach by late Monday, for the last push to get our To Do list finished up, and off on Soggy Paws by the end of the week.